.nds is a game file format for Nintendo DS games, for 3D models nintendo has released an announcement that they use 3D studios max, which means their models should be .3ds and their textures most likely .tga, the games are no doubt compiled in C++.

.nds is a binary compiled file not read able in notepad or any text program, however so is .blend and .3ds ETC.

I'm requesting a team to start decompiling a few roms and looking at the unpacked files for model and texture formats and script formats, from where we should be able to set-up a verticie, edge and face logger to read the model files and texture mapping locations/settings.

once that is done we should have significant abilities to load .nds files in blender allowing users to at least edit the games for playing on PC

mouse+left click = touchscreen fuctions

once we can load .nds files in blender, we have 2 options in order to play the files on a NDS, using a TTDS flash cartridge http://www.NDSTT.com , we could;

1: make a .nds version of blender player and leave the edited games in .blend format

2: use the knowledge obtained during decompiling and extracting to make an export script to export .blend to .nds

I don't expect immediate results on this project, but lets at least get it started, please

whats this will also present is this:

1: a professional open source 'game base' for people to take a look at and edit

2: the abbility to export custom blender games for playing on a nintendo DS system.

and now time to disappear back into City of heroes / Villians and trying to get me a geeky GF (I'll check back at least once a day)

I'm requesting a team to start decompiling a few roms and looking at the unpacked files for model and texture formats and script formats, from where we should be able to set-up a verticie, edge and face logger to read the model files and texture mapping locations/settings.

Most likely, decompiling the ROMS violates the licensing agreement they come with. And what do you mean by 'we'? Is there a mouse in your pocket?

I'm requesting a team to start decompiling a few roms and looking at the unpacked files for model and texture formats and script formats, from where we should be able to set-up a verticie, edge and face logger to read the model files and texture mapping locations/settings.

Most likely, decompiling the ROMS violates the licensing agreement they come with.

no actually, there are no laws about decompiling, there are some laws about copying but they don't cover this level of usage.

stiv wrote:And what do you mean by 'we'? Is there a mouse in your pocket?

I'm trying to start a team, or at least get some advice on a good decompiler to use. but I'll need help with making the import script for blender and scanning the files for verticie, edge and face layouts/logs'/formats and such

stiv wrote:And try not to post the same msg more than once a day, please.

oh! sorry, were there duplicates? it was a problem during posting, I hit the 'submit button' and nothing happened until i clicked it several more times, sorry if that made duplicate threads.

I doubt you really want to get into this but if your serious I would checkout
the following tutorial(s). It talks about how to make a basic ds application.
Once you know how that works you'll have a better idea of how things work.http://double.co.nz/nintendo_ds/nds_develop4.html

indeed, we'll see how things go, I'm still interested in setting this up, have had my hands tied recently though.

SirDude wrote: I doubt you really want to get into this but if your serious I would checkout
the following tutorial(s). It talks about how to make a basic ds application.
Once you know how that works you'll have a better idea of how things work.http://double.co.nz/nintendo_ds/nds_develop4.html

scrolling through it now, I'm gonna have to study that in great detail, thank you very much for the link!

hoshino wrote:I'd hate to break your thunder, but you seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that decompiling or anything of the sort is reverse engineering, and there are ALL sorts of laws that govern that.

Nintendo doesn't specify such rules in their legality statements, from what I'm aware of, the only things they have set-up to protect thier software are:

1: you may not own a digital copy of a game you don't physically own (this varies by country)

2:all characters and music etc. is property of nintendo, this means you can't put their models etc. in your game and release it for sale without permission.

repeat the goal of this project: to use NDS games as examples to set-up a animator's own game with their own characters for NDS, and be able to put current blender games on the NDS.

indeed, we'll see how things go, I'm still interested in setting this up, have had my hands tied recently though.

SirDude wrote: I doubt you really want to get into this but if your serious I would checkout
the following tutorial(s). It talks about how to make a basic ds application.
Once you know how that works you'll have a better idea of how things work.http://double.co.nz/nintendo_ds/nds_develop4.html

scrolling through it now, I'm gonna have to study that in great detail, thank you very much for the link!

hoshino wrote:I'd hate to break your thunder, but you seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that decompiling or anything of the sort is reverse engineering, and there are ALL sorts of laws that govern that.

Nintendo doesn't specify such rules in their legality statements, from what I'm aware of, the only things they have set-up to protect thier software are:

1: you may not own a digital copy of a game you don't physically own (this varies by country)

2:all characters and music etc. is property of nintendo, this means you can't put their models etc. in your game and release it for sale without permission.

repeat the goal of this project: to use NDS games as examples to set-up a animator's own game with their own characters for NDS, and be able to put current blender games on the NDS.

wow, this was a good idea looking back, a NDS import script, sadly at that time it was too hard to find utilities to reverse engineer the files well enough to be able to get models or textures or scripting from them.

in short I couldn't do it. the project is open for others who are interested and have a higher level of knowledge of programming.